American scientist claim to be ?one step closer? to developing the stuff of geek-fantasy: the invisibility cloak.
Researchers at the University of California in Berkley say they have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them ?disappear?.
The materials do not occur naturally, but has been created on a nano-scale, measured in billionths of a metre. The team hopes that one day the principles could be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.
The scientist?s study, led by Xiang Zhang, was published in the journals Nature and Science.
The researchers said the new system works like water flowing around a rock. Because light is not absorbed or reflected by the object, a person only sees the light from behind it ? rendering the object invisible.
The new material has ?negative refractive? properties, and a multi-layered ?fishnet? structure which is transparent over a wide range of light wavelengths.
The US government funded research could one day be used in military stealth operations, making snipers unseen and tanks vanish before the enemy?s eyes.